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Nelson Chai, the former chief financial officer of NYSE Euronext, who yesterday followed his former boss John Thain to Merrill Lynch, is to receive a minimum bonus of $2.5m (â¬1.7m) after only three weeks at the world's largest stock exchange.

The US investment bank said in a regulatory filing yesterday Chai, who quit from the world’s largest exchange group just last week, will receive a “guaranteed” $2.5m, half in stock and half in cash, for this year. His salary for next year will be $600,000.

Chai’s bonus plan came just three weeks after the US investment bank announced its compensation package for John Thain, its chairman and chief executive, who took over on December 1. He will receive a one-off bonus of $15m, a salary of $750,000 and a share and options package valued at $50m to $70m. Thain is former chief executive of NYSE Euronext.

NYSE Euronext had not detailed Thain and Chai’s bonus packages for this year at the time of their departure but filings show Thain received just $3.25m at NYSE last year compared to $15m at the investment bank this year.

The disparity is partly because Thain introduced a culture of austerity at the world’s largest stock exchange when he took over from former NYSE boss Richard “Dick” Grasso, who left the exchange in 2003 shrouded in controversy amid allegations he was receiving a pay packet valued at $190m.

Thain, who had previously been paid $20m as the chief operating officer at Goldman Sachs, took a 2003 salary of $4m, a fraction of that taken by Grasso. Last year he slashed his pay again to $750,000.

Stan O’Neal, who left as chairman and chief executive of Merrill in October in the wake of a record $7.9bn (€5.5bn) writedown in fixed income, was paid total pay included $18.5m in a cash bonus and stock of $28.8m in addition to his basic salary, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Separately, Duncan Niederauer, the new chief executive of NYSE Euronext, said today he does not expect further defections, following the departures of the exchange’s CEO and CFO in a month, fuelling speculation he may change the bonus and salary structures at the exchange.

However, Margaret Tutwiler, the head of communications, marketing and government at NYSE Euronext, today became the third NYSE staffer to join Merrill Lynch as head of global communications and public affairs. At Merrill, Tutwiler will be responsible for all external and internal communications activities. Before joining NYSE, she was the US Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and served as US Ambassador to Morocco.